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Monday, June 10, 2013

My Own Little Belle

A little less than two months are left before Katarina turns ten years old. I want to hold on to every minute of her nine-ness. I want to tuck aside memories of all the special things that made up this year of her life, before she crosses the bridge into the land of double digit years.

Katarina can almost always be found with a book. A large portion of her days are spent with the characters and worlds that live within pages. These are her favorite books and series from the past few months. Some of them are old friends, read over and over again, and some are new loves.

The books read when you are a child stay in a special corner of your heart that no other book can reach. In my quest to remember the ninth year of her life, I want to note what she was reading - the stories that captured her imagination, made her laugh, caused her think, sat with her in solitude, touched her heart, and broadened her world.

I want to remember the books we read together, and the ones she read alone, often staying up way to late to finish one more chapter (which often turns into two or even three more chapters).

Some of her favorite books are stories that sit in the special corner of my heart. Books I loved when I was a child, and have enjoyed revisiting with Katarina - traveling to far off places together, introducing each other to characters, and sharing the special understanding that only two people who love the same book can have. In those moments, we aren't just mother and daughter; we are friends as well. It is a beautiful blessing.

64 comments:

A girl after my own heart!I love reading, books and readers.Nancy Drew - I read all of them when I was a child. This makes me want tor revisit my childhood favorites.What a great way to remember Katarina's nine-ness!

Oh I love this way of capturing your girl's year! You are so right - books read at this age do occupy such a special and important place. And your girl and I could find so much to talk about - Narnia and Harry Potter and, of course, BSC. So fun!

I used to love book series and I think I tried them all, even the lesser known ones: Babysitter Club, Sweet Valley, Sleepover Friends, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Pen Pals, Polk Street School, Fabulous Five..

There are a few on here I never read (like Polk Street School) or heard of before now. But I loved me some Sweet Valley, and I was a total Baby-Sitters Club girl. I think I read the Sleepover Friends books, too.

She is so gorgeous! I love that you have this record of her favorites. I loved the Shoes books when I was Katarina's age - Ballet Shoes, Theatre Shoes, Skating Shoes - and Sweet Valley High. But probably my favorite was From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franenweiler.

I LOVE hearing about a child who loves to read...we are getting closer with my older daughter, and it warms my heart. Thanks to this post I just ordered her the first Babysitter's Club book...hope she loves it as much as I did! :)-Ashley

Your kid is beautiful and totally awesome:). As a kid I read everything I could get my hands on. Little House, all of louisa may alcott's books, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Narnia, Elfquest, The Hobbit, The Mixed Up Files, the Bobbsey Twins, the Shoes series (Ballet, Theater and Dancing) and so many more. My favorite book at one point was Hard Luck Horse and I still have my original copy. Also National Velvet. My copy is falling apart and has stuff written in the margins like, Go Velvet! Which is sort of embarrassing now, but how I loved that book. I hope I will get to share books with my son like you do with Katarina.

What a lovely picture and a beautiful girl!I just recently read a childrens' book she might enjoy - it's called Wildwood (and it'll be a series, there are currently two books with a third one on the way).Have a great summer!

My neighbor had shelves books her daughter left behind when she moved away to college. I used to go over there and borrow them by the armful, and there were quite a few Christopher Pike ones mixed in there.

Love! She is truly a girl after my own heart and I remember loving and reading MANY of the same books you listed for her! I'm excited for Amber to be a little older so she can start reading the books I knew and loved too!

Wow, this post was a blast from my past. I read many of the same books when I was growing up, and I can't wait to introduce my daughters when they're older. Babysitters Club, Anne of Green Gables, Chronicles of Narnia! I read the Harry Potter series a few years ago and can't wait to re-read them with my girls!

Beautiful idea. She is just like my 8 year old daughter. I think I might borrow your idea and do this too. I remember she exasperatedly exclaimed one day, "Mom, take me to the library! I've read every book appropriate for me in this house! Some of them thrice!" And appropriate meant all the books within her reach. LOL.

That is a fantastic reading list for a nine-year old. You’re right, I have a special fondness for the books I loved as a kid. Here’s to two more months of being nine, and to the excitement that comes with being ten!

I really just smiled throughout this post, I LOVE IT. How awesome that you thought to capture this period of your beautiful daughter's life. Warms my heart right up. You brought me right back to my childhood and the beginnings of my book-loving days. I remember loving The Baby-Sitters Club at her age and a few years later lots of Lois Duncan stories like Down a Dark Hall and Summer of Fear. GREAT post!

I love this line, "I want to hold on to every minute of her nine-ness." She is so precious. I remember being that age, it's a pretty magical time. All these books you listed just took me back down memory lane, I loved the Baby Sitters Club and the Chronicles of Narnia. And the Box Car Children! I think she must be a smart girl.

My daughter is almost twelve- and i miss how much she used to read as a nine year old. I have to find a way to capture that again, to reintroduce her to all the wonders in books. Trying to balance limits on computer/ipod, with getting some of these awesome titles into her hands. Wish me luck! :)

I was always buried in a book but I have little recall of which books I read ... aside from everything that I could lay my hands on! I have vague memories of Nancy Drew and Little House series but nothing else comes to mind until my rebel stage when I was about 16 and buried myself in Black Like Me, Malcolm X, and other books about racism. The strongest book memory I have though is crying when Rhett told Scarlett that he didn't give a "damn" at the end of Gone With the Wind. I'd still like to rewrite the end of that one!

What a fantastic picture and way to capture the books she loves. My middle schooler is an avid reader as well as am I now that I am adult. I enjoyed Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Babysitters club as a kid and then lost my love of reading until now. I blog a lot about books now as it's my favorite "me time" pastime these days.